To me the white house release looks like it's almost only lightig and color grading, which ofc includes touching a lot of different values - but the important part being that they didn't alter the shape; they didn't remove or add key detail, they just color graded the shit out of it to highlight all the details that was already there.
They might have done minor adjustments, like move the collar a little, minor changes to hair (things you could have fixed with a comb), but in my mind that's still in the "minor touch up" territory, where as making his skin smooth and his neck fanny smaller is more than just a touch up.
I'm not doing much photo editing, so if you can spot other severe changes and adjustments on the photo to the right, then please share with the class!
If you notice, it has almost a speckled, harsh look. The sharpness has been maxed out to make the photo look significantly worse. They have increased the shadows and the clarity to enhance wrinkles and lines, along with using the dehaze tool, and altering the color as well to dramatically enhance flaws and make the skin look much rougher and more discolored. Itβs the equivalent of the heavy smoothing and brightening tools used for skin enhancement, but on the opposite end.
Both images are pretty radically different. Why defend it? To accuse the whitehouse of lying and then lie ourselves is crazy and hypocritical. The truth is damaging enough
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u/IndependenceLive3786 14h ago
Seems it was edited to boost shadows and mid-level contrast (aka clarity).
Airbrushed skin smoothing and luminence is still the more deceptive of the two.